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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Mastering the Art of Tinkering

Author : Amiel Kornel

Published in: Spinning into Control

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US

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Abstract

Tinkering is the first of three core skills that venture craftsmen perfect over time, through which they engage in a tactile and kinesthetic dialogue with tools, resources, and potential products or services. While still exploring as-yet poorly understood opportunities, they handcraft loosely defined prototypes to accelerate learning and improve design. Iterating architecture, capabilities, components and appearance, they adapt primitive prototypes to lessons learned about markets, technical feasibility and the economics of building a viable business. Prototypes help spin the venture’s intelligence-generating “learning loop.”

Ultimately, tinkering helps make a startup self-sustaining and fault-tolerant. As learning accelerates and incubation skills and tools improve, the likelihood that venture craftsmen will craft a winning business grows. As execution and market uncertainties diminish, prototype sophistication and precision rise until concepts are ready to be engineered as commercial products.

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previous chapter Ode to the Venture Craftsman

next chapter Mastering the Art of Conversing

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Title: Mastering the Art of Tinkering
Author: Amiel Kornel
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
Book: Spinning into Control
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-51355-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-51356-4

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51356-4_2